Web Services

Web Services

by Anura Guruge
Released April 2004
Publisher(s): Digital Press
ISBN: 9780080520957

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Book description

This is a soup-to-nuts reference guide on all aspects of Web Services - where Web Services is a fast emerging set of Internet-specific middleware technology to further promote the growth of all aspects of e-business via standardization, collaboration and "franchising." This book is best characterized as an executive brief for IT and senior management rather than a nuts-and-bolts technical guide for portal implementers. Think of it as the "Cliffs Notes on Web Services." Given this audience, the book consistently focuses on business needs, value propositions, ROI, proven solutions and actual examples of current implementations. Each chapter also ends with a 10-item "Q&A" section that consolidates and summarizes the information discussed in the chapter. The book is illustrated with detailed technical diagrams, includes lots of arresting subtitles and contains many bullet lists and tables to facilitate (and encourage) productive skimming.

Decision makers - the intended readership for this book - gain increasing comfort and confidence as they get into the book that they are getting to see all facets of the issues, on a consistent basis, and that they will not be blind-sided at meetings by people asking 'difficult' questions. At the end of each chapter, Guruge summarizes and reinforces key points, allowing the reader to skim through the topics for crucial information. The book also leverages living outside resources and ensures that the readership always has ready and consistent access to any and all terms, definitions and concepts they might not be familiar with.

"Debate style" presentation, focusing repeatedly on pros-and-cons, e.g., .NET vs. Java, open vs. proprietary and buy vs. build
Author's trademark detailed architectural and network diagrams of portal implementations
Q&A section at end of each chapter

Table of contents

  1. Copyright
    1. Dedication
  2. Related Titles from Digital Press
  3. Foreword
  4. Preface
    1. Value proposition
    2. What is covered?
    3. Navigating through this book
  5. Acknowledgments
  6. 1. Web Services: What, Why, and Where?
    1. 1.1. What are Web services?
      1. 1.1.1. Linking to remote functionality
      2. 1.1.2. Self-promoting, as in blowing your own trumpet
      3. 1.1.3. The salient characteristics of Web services
      4. 1.1.4. Web services—not
    2. 1.2. Why there is a need for Web services
      1. 1.2.1. Why Web services complement portals
      2. 1.2.2. Why Web services are galvanizing legacy modernization
      3. 1.2.3. Why Web services impinge on business processes
    3. 1.3. When to implement Web services
      1. 1.3.1. The issues weighing down upon when
    4. 1.4. How to create and use Web services
      1. 1.4.1. How to circumvent implementational pitfalls
    5. 1.5. Q&A: A time to recap and reflect
  7. 2. XML—The Backbone of Web Services
    1. 2.1. XML from 33,000 feet
    2. 2.2. What XML is all about
    3. 2.3. The very basics of XML
      1. 2.3.1. XML elements and element names
      2. 2.3.2. Special characters in XML and XML “entities”
      3. 2.3.3. The need for mutual understanding
      4. 2.3.4. XML namespaces
    4. 2.4. Contrasting XML against HTML
    5. 2.5. DTDs and XML schema
    6. 2.6. XSL and XSLT: Making XML presentable
    7. 2.7. XML editors and XML APIs
    8. 2.8. WSDL in a nutshell
    9. 2.9. Q&A: A time to recap and reflect
  8. 3. Microsoft’s Web Services
    1. 3.1. The real and not-so-real issues
      1. 3.1.1. No real glory in making it complicated
      2. 3.1.2. Mounting the platform—gingerly
      3. 3.1.3. Ease of development, however, is not everything
      4. 3.1.4. Circumventing the Windows server issue
    2. 3.2. The .NET initiative
      1. 3.2.1. The composition of .NET
      2. 3.2.2. The .NET Framework
    3. 3.3. The pivotal .NET offerings
    4. 3.4. Microsoft’s .NET passport
    5. 3.5. HailStorm
    6. 3.6. Q&A: A time to recap and reflect
  9. 4. Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration
    1. 4.1. The rationale and motivation for UDDI
    2. 4.2. The UDDI model
      1. 4.2.1. UDDI data structures
      2. 4.2.2. UDDI keys
      3. 4.2.3. UDDI APIs
      4. 4.2.4. UDDI nodes and UDDI registries
    3. 4.3. How UDDI has evolved
    4. 4.4. UDDI implementations—UBR and otherwise
      1. 4.4.1. The UDDI Business Register
      2. 4.4.2. UDDI enterprise registries
    5. 4.5. Security and integrity in relation to UDDI implementations
    6. 4.6. Q&A: A time to recap and reflect
  10. 5. SOAP
    1. 5.1. SOAP: The genesis and evolution
      1. 5.1.1. The SOAP 1.2 initiative
    2. 5.2. SOAP: The overall model
      1. 5.2.1. SOAP processing model
      2. 5.2.2. Security considerations with SOAP
    3. 5.3. SOAP messages
    4. 5.4. SOAP implementations
    5. 5.5. Q&A: A time to recap and reflect
  11. 6. Java and Web Services
    1. 6.1. Java: An overview
      1. 6.1.1. Virtual machines, containers, and developer kits
      2. 6.1.2. The basic Java argot
    2. 6.2. The Java 2 platforms
      1. 6.2.1. Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE)
    3. 6.3. Java support for Web services
    4. 6.4. Web services–related Java implementations
    5. 6.5. Java in relation to .NET relative to Web services
    6. 6.6. Q&A: A time to recap and reflect
  12. 7. Deploying and Managing Web Services
    1. 7.1. Web services: The risk assessment
      1. 7.1.1. Growth scenarios for external Web services
    2. 7.2. Security considerations for Web services
      1. 7.2.1. Digital certificates and PKI
      2. 7.2.2. Two-factor authentication
      3. 7.2.3. Secure Sockets Layer
    3. 7.3. A predeployment checklist for Web services
    4. 7.4. The platform issue—yet again
    5. 7.5. Managing it all
    6. 7.6. Q&A: A time to recap and reflect
  13. 8. Taking Stock of Web Services
    1. 8.1. Web services: A SWOT analysis
      1. 8.1.1. Web services: Weaknesses and threats
      2. 8.1.2. SWOT: Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats
    2. 8.2. What is the real cost of implementing Web services?
    3. 8.3. The last hurrah in terms of the advantages of Web services
    4. 8.4. Q&A: A final reprise and recap
  14. Acronyms
  15. Glossary
  16. Bibliography
  17. About the Author

Product information

  • Title: Web Services
  • Author(s): Anura Guruge
  • Release date: April 2004
  • Publisher(s): Digital Press
  • ISBN: 9780080520957